Sunday, March 1, 2009

"I told him of my fear of losing control of my destiny, how, because I had camouflaged myself so well, I seemed now to be shaped and directed too much by the needs of others. How the power of one within me was being dissipated even though their purposes for me were not corrupted or ill-intentioned. On the contrary, their deeds came swaddled in the innocence of love. I was becoming powerless as those around me plundered my spirit with the gifts of themselves... It was time to slough the mottled and cunningly contrived outer skin and emerge as myself, to face risk or exposure, to regain the power of one. I had reached the point where to find myself was essential."

-More from THE POWER OF ONE, finished a few days ago.

I wrote - if I recall correctly - that whatever running pursuits I have I have because, partly, "I have nothing better to do."

Well, we'll see if that's true.

Starting Season 2 this week. The first ended successfully: I ran for three months, built up training, stayed healthy and ran a PR in the mile: 4:17.57. I said afterwards if I ran any slower I would have dubbed the season a failure.

"At about nine, I had the very pleasant notion that I was the Fastest Boy Runner in the World. It's the kind of queer, basically extracurricular conceit, I'm inclined to add, that dies hard, and even today, at a super-sedentary forty, I can picture myself, in street clothes, whisking past a series of distinguished but hard-breathing Olympic milers and waving to them, amiably, without a trace of condescension."
-J.D. Salinger